From Zombos Closet

Movies (Horror)

Black Swan (2010)

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Print001 Zombos Says: Excellent

While other directors choose to infuriate and nauseate their audiences with outrageous human centipedes, Darren Aronofsky goes to the ballet instead to unleash Black Swan, a movie that releases the repressed demon within through restrained gore and unrestrained pirouettes.

Natalie Portman plays the emotionally crippled Nina Sayers, a New York City ballerina whose repressed sensuality and domineering mother (Barbara Hershey) keep Nina’s bedroom crowded with pink, stuffed animals, and her social life as busy as the one the little dancing ballerina in her music box has.

When offered the chance to play the dual role of the White and Black Swans in Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake, Nina’s descent into madness, and ascent into freedom, begins. Goading her on is her director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), who, like the evil sorceror, Von Rothbart, wants to control her passion. It is this transition from White Swan, which Nina dances flawlessly, to Black Swan, which requires her to unleash a sensual side long repressed that makes Black Swan almost like watching Carrie‘s Carrie White dressed in a tutu. It is an engrossing and jarring farandole macabre, one filled with horrific moments for Nina and us as her mind splinters into paranoia and hallucination, and feeds on its fears.

Much of Black Swan is filmed in uncomfortably unsteady and confining closeups. Rarely do we see beyond what Nina sees or imagines. Like the mechanical ballerina confined to her music box, Nina’s world is confined to her apartment, her bedroom, and the ballet hall where she brutalizes her body with constant practice. A real or imagined rivalry between her and Lily (Mila Kunis), an unbridled ballerina whose sensuality makes her a natural to dance the role of the Black Swan, erupts into more self-torture for Nina. Her obsessive compulsive behaviors grow into waking nightmares. In a scene reminiscent of the nasty face peeling in Poltergeist, Nina picks at a scab until the blood flows red. Her self-scratching leaves bloody tears she’s not conscious of making. Her paranoia leads to a smashed and bloody dressing room mirror.

Aronofsky doles out gore to emphasize the physical punishment Nina is going through, and lavishes it on in one queeze-inducing hallucination: a closeup of a cracked and bloody toenail; skin-peeling; blood flowing from under a door. I wonder how the older audience in the theater felt (I was in Florida when I saw Black Swan) seeing these common horror movie images in a movie marketed as a drama and thriller?

Black Swan is a triumph of technique, tension, and metamorphosis as Nina becomes the Black Swan. And it is a horror movie. Make no mistake about that.

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
Pavlovian Horror Redux

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Zombos Says: Good (but stretches camera POV thin)

Print001

Watching Paranormal Activity 2 I felt like one of Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, but instead of salivating at the sound of a bell, I would watch the screen more intently each time a low rumbling noise alerted me to the onset of a supernatural event. I can’t readily recall any other horror movie franchise that purposefully conditions you to wait for something to happen by making you watch near endless home video recordings of the same scenes, again and again, in anticipation of something happening. Either this is an ingenious use of minimalist cinema verite and camera POV, or we’re being suckered big time. Maybe it’s a little of both.

A prequel and sequel rolled into one, the reason for the haunting is also hinted at, removing the unsettling feeling of this-could-happen-to-anyone you get in Paranormal Activity, but leaving room for another franchise entrant. Since the explanation involves family members back in the 1920s, you’d have to show it through box camera and scrapbook photographs, and hand-cranked newsreel footage instead of modern handycams and convenient home security cameras, like the ones watching Hunter’s bedroom, the swimming pool vacuum cleaner, the living room, and the front door during the night. Their use is a creative and necessary extension to the first movie’s handycam-only point of view, but this camera POV storytelling is wearing its compensating techniques thin through overuse, to a point of creating a self-conscious persistance that erodes believability. How many people, young or old, have a handycam glued to their hand to record everything, including lengthy poolside chit-chat and room-roaming discussions?

Recordings from the security cameras are shown again and again, each night, until the family takes notice (and us) of the escalating activity around Hunter, the German Shepard, and Kristi Rey (Sprague Grayden), Katie‘s sister. Katie was haunted and possessed by the demon in the first movie. The events in this one take place two months before that happens and explain why.

I suppose demons have all eternity to mess with mortals, so that’s why not much happens for a while:  the pool’s vacuum cleaner strangely winds up outside the pool each morning; the German Shepard barks and growl’s at empty air; Hunter keeps staring at empty air; kitchen pots rattle and drop off their hooks with a bang in the dead of night; the family’s nanny, Martine (Vivis Cortez), keeps cleansing the house of evil spirits. Like Maleva, the old gypsy woman in The Wolf Man, Martine knows something bad is happening. They didn’t listen to Maleva until it was too late, either.

After her continual religious-based cleaning smokes up the house and irks Dan Rey (Brian Boland), he sends her away. The haunting begins in earnest after she leaves, and Dan’s daughter Ali (Molly Ephraim) turns to Google to find out what’s going on. In the older horror movies characters turned to moldy books, dusty parchments, curled scrolls, and bloody scrawls, and spent much of their time seeking them out (except for bloody scrawls of course: you just stumble across those); now every teen in a horror movie goes to the Internet to learn everything about the supernatural and demonic: same motif, different notes.

And yet it still works its magic. I jumped at the kitchen jump-shock, and waited uneasily for those payout moments that built from little innocuous events to the terminal ferocity in the basement.

In a horror movie, the basement is always the place you don’t want to be.

Case 39 (2009)
This Social Worker Needs Help

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Print002 Zombos Says: Good (but formulaic)

It almost seems every horror movie this year has shown a kid hugging a pillow or a crucifix hanging on a wall–or both. Case 39 shows both, and adds Renee Zelwegger’s puffy-pouting cheeks and coy eyes, which are better suited to her romantic roles. It also shows a little girl named Lillith (Jodelle Ferland) whose suspense-killing name is an obvious clue to her demeanor for any devout horror fan watching.

The 39th case in question concerns overworked Emily’s (Renee Zelwegger) new assignment. Emily is a social worker who hates the overwhelming case load she struggles with but can’t ignore any child in need. Lillith is Emily’s 39th case and appears to be in need. Her parents want to kill her.

They almost do, but Emily’s persistence manages to get Detective Barron (Ian McShane) involved just in time to stop them from roasting Lillith in the oven. Her parents head to the psychiatric ward while Lillith does a little social work of her own to eventually convince Emily to look after her. After Lillith moves into Emily’s home is when those puffy-pouting cheeks work overtime with growing worry. Emily finally notices all those quirky things you should never ignore in a horror movie like: Lillith’s parents locking themselves in their room at night with big honking bolts on their bedroom door; an ominous looking scratch in the wood floor; people start dying when phone calls are made from Emily’s cell phone late at night; Lillith tells Emily she better provide lots of ice cream and nice things to say or else.

Here is where I take note of my disappointment. I thought Case 39 would try a different direction  for a change.  I hoped for a kid plagued by demons, not a demon-kid plaguing adults. We’ve seen evil kids before: pony-tailed Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed, sinister little Damien in The Omen, long-haired Samara in The Ring, and tightly-wound Esther in The Orphan. Ferland can hold her own against any of them, but the formula here ignores interesting possibilities an innocent child cursed by demon playmates can muster. Instead we have typical, all-purpose, no-seasoning-required scares coming from Emily’s growing realization she was wrong about Lillith and her parents.

Some tension is here, but it is straighforward and builds predictably, although Christian Alvart directs us through it with strong imagery as shown in the oven-stuffer attempt by Lillith’s parents–which shows another use for duct tape I bet you never thought of–a jaw slamming hard enough into a refrigerator door for both to crunch, sparingly used (until the end, anyway) CGI-enhanced demonic features playing across innocent little Lillith’s face when she gets mad, and token growls and voices not of this world. True to Hollywood Horror Think, Zelwegger even gets a chance to run screaming in the rain wearing little more than raindrops. She does have great gams, though.

Ray Wright adds a subtle twist to the story: how will Emily, a social worker, deal with a kid-looking monster everyone else sees as an innocent angel? But he never brings it to a boil after the simmering set up. If you’ve seen The Crazies and Pulse remakes, you already know his approach. It’s adequately underwhelming, lacking any finer points of fear-making, like making us guess what’s going to happen next instead of worrying about how creatively he can make people die.

The breakout point should have come at this scene: Lillith sitting across the table from psychologist Doug (Bradley Cooper); he thinks he’s talking to a little girl who’s scared, but she makes him fearful for his own safety. Wright follows the path of least resistance and uses the moment to set up a nasty death later. It’s a wasted opportunity for mounting real tension,  just so the CGI boys could gimmick up another corpus exitus?

Still, those gams are worth a look.

Let Me In (2010)

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Let_me_in Zombos Says: Very Good

Abby: “You have to hit back.”
Owen: “I can’t. There’s 3 of them.”
Abby: “Then you hit back even harder.”

Between the idealized romance-fantasy of Twilight and the fetishistic terror romp of 30 Days of Night lies Let Me In, Hammer Studios’ English-language remake of Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in), a movie that returns the vampire to its cursed existence.

Abby (Chloe Moretz) is a peculiar 12-year old girl who says she’s not a girl. During the night she quietly moves into the apartment complex where Owen lives, accompanied by her sullen father. Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a peculiar, lonely boy, bullied at school, and wedged in the middle of his parent’s divorce. He lives with his mother, who is very religious and hangs a crucifix on the wall. He also eats Farley’s and Sathers Now and Later candy, in what possibly may be the most seemless product placement done for a film. It’s Owen’s only constant and cheerful companion. He sings the jingle in-between chews, “Eat Some Now. Save Some for Later.” Abby can’t share in Owen’s enjoyment eating Now and Later because human blood is the only thing she can stomach; but both share an isolation, a need for companionship and acceptance, and both are caught between uneasy nows and always certain laters.

Abby is a vampire that doesn’t kill for herself, although when aroused she attacks viciously, tearing throats apart and ripping off heads. Her father (Richard Jenkins) collects blood for her by waiting behind car seats and surprising his victims. He drains their blood into a plastic jug.  His joyless laters are filled with killing for Abby and he’s been doing it for a long time. He hates it, but why doesn’t he stop? When the butchered bodies turn up, a detective (Elias Kotias) investigates, believing a Satanic Cult may be involved.

Print001 Both Abby and Owen are lifeless: she’s dead and he lacks vitality. When they first meet, she’s shoeless in the snow because she doesn’t feel the cold. He has no friends at school and the apartment complex is filled with adults, so he spends his time alone in the courtyard chewing Now and Laters and avoiding the bullies at school. Owen can’t emotionally grow up and Abby physically can’t; she doesn’t even remember how old she is. He probably wants to forget how old he is. He’s so unhappy he puts a mask on and coldly pretends to stab imaginary bullies with his newly bought pocket-knife. Both Abby and Owen share a dark side, too.

Matt Reeves keeps us close to everyone, only briefly opening our view to see the turmoil Abby’s curse brings, or to watch her from a distance as she easily scales a hospital’s facade. She is a traditional vampire: her bite spreads the curse, sunlight is her enemy, and she must be invited into a room. When Owen asks her why she must be invited in she cant’ explain why, but shows him what happens if she’s not. The tone of the movie is dark and subdued by its close framing, which helps highlight the sudden moments of terror when they come: Abby’s victim in the hospital awakes to sunlight as a nurse opens the curtains; Owen is held under water in the school’s swimming pool at night; Abby transforms and attacks when the need for blood overtakes her; a car rolls over and over as seen from inside it.

It’s unusual for a remake to be this good, this measured. Let Me In is an unusual vampire movie. It captures the sordidness of being cursed as a vampire and leaves no wiggle room for romance, blood substitutes, medical explanations, or sadistic predator delight. Abby travels in a box, sleeps in a bathtub, and smells funny. Unlike Bella Swan, the last thing on Abby’s mind is wanting to be a vampire: now or later.

The Last Exorcism (2010)
The Devil Is One Busy Soul

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Lastexorcism Zombos Says: Very Good

I once wanted a TV ministry. Now all I want is health insurance. (Cotton Marcus in The Last Exorcism)

Religious motifs in horror movies have been explored as far back as the 1920 movie, The Golem, the story of a rabbi using sorcery to bring a giant clay man to life. Usually what’s involved are questions of faith (either too much or too little), questions of spiritual morality (again, either too much or not enough), and nasty demons chewing on souls and scenery with equal zeal (you can never have too much of that).

Often there are also important tests of faith when vampires–remember Fright Night‘s vampire and cross confrontation?–Satan, assorted minions of Satan, and especially Uwe Boll are involved. Strong characters–or at least heavily stereotypical ones–are essential for selling all that flashy Hell and licking flames of damnation mumbo-jumbo convincingly enough to seal the deal, too.

Minister Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) does the mumbo-jumbo in The Last Exorcism “like nobody’s business” as his wife would say, only he doesn’t have faith in what he does. Coming from a family lineage of exorcists–they even have an old Latin guidebook with illustrations to identify those pesky minions of Hell–he’s the last exorcist, but only in showmanship, not spirit. He knows it’s simple quackery, on a par with snake oil, sold with hidden string pulling and MP3 recording playing. He explains his showy casting out of demons “gets all the press because they got the movie” and okay, maybe it does help those who believe in the devil’s Hellfire of possession; but for him it’s another payday after an easy salvation sale is made.

We know how he feels about this because he’s doing a documentary to reveal the truth and, like the 2-person film crew in tow, we follow him as he does his knee-slapping sermons, illustrates the Prince of Lies’ trickery with card tricks, and takes on a dare by preaching a Banana Bread sermon. He can summon a sparkle of brimstone between his fingertips with a snap and an Amen as easily as he dons his linen suit to reveal how he fakes an exorcism at the Sweetzer farm in Baton Rouge. After cattle killings have convinced Mr. Sweetzer the Devil’s on the hoof and soul-snatching his daughter, Marcus answers the call for Nell’s salvation. It’s really another dare because to Marcus it’s all so easy to do.

Nell (Ashley Bell) is all milk and honey and innocence. She draws beautiful pictures and hangs them on her wall. Mr. Sweetzer (Louis Herthem) is a devout, devil-fearing father who home-schools his daughter and fears for her immortal soul because she’s possessed and butchering the cattle. Nell’s exorcism is conducted in-between Marcus’ revelations of the gimmicks he employs. The father is satisfied the demon has been expulsed and Marcus collects his pay.

When Nell shows up later at the hotel room where Marcus is staying, unresponsive and in her pajamas, the minister is unsure and no longer in control, two feelings he doesn’t have much experience with. Returning to the Sweetzer farm, the test of faith for Marcus, the unintended revelation of another truth for his documentary, and those creepy new pictures that Nell drew and hung on her bedroom wall–pictures of Marcus and the camera crew in pieces–call for more involvement beyond what he had in mind, and another exorcism: this time a real one.

Or so it would seem. The Prince of Lies is either dishing it out hot and heavy, or someone else is putting on a better show. Marcus is eager to dig deeper, but his film crew is getting the willies. And for good reason: The Last Exorcist plays unfair with its handheld camera point of view style made famous (or perhaps I should say infamous) with Blair Witch. Like the unexpected shift in point of view seen in The Last Broadcast, Daniel Stamm directs in pseudo-documentary style, then ignores it by using more refined setups and music, two things you normally don’t see in pseudo-documentary style because they confuse the effect. He even let’s Nell hold the camera for a while: a surprisingly effective twist of possession, about her possession. The ending is surprisingly audacious also, but if you pay close attention earlier in the movie, not completely unexpected.

The Last Exorcism is a clever, well-acted, oddly directed, and a I-can’t-believe-you-actually-did-that-ending scary movie. You won’t see copious pea-soup vomiting, bed levitations, or 360 degree head turns, but what you do see is damn good terror. I’ll stake my soul on that.

Devil (2010)

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Zombos Says: Good

John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine) locks us in a stranded elevator with five strangers and the Prince of Darkness in Devil, a tidy traditional horror movie that works well by balancing its terror with its Ten Little Indians‘ mystery: Who are these five people? Is one of them the Devil? Why are they being tormented?

It is a minimal premise delivered with a 1970s tempo and plotline, propelled less by gory acrobatics and more by the increasing antagonisms within the tight space as Ramirez (Jacob Vargus), a religious and superstitious security guard, whose mother told him stories of how the Devil would appear unexpectedly in odd places to claim souls, is the first one to recognize what’s happening.

Brian Nelson’s (30 Days of Night) screenplay, based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, evenly mixes the interplay across the helpless people inside the elevator with the equally helpless rescuers outside, led by Detective Bowden (Chris Messina). Dowdle and Nelson underplay the drama to keep Devil from becoming pretentiously silly and preachy, dropping the pedantic sledgehammer Shyamalan has been pounding us with in his more recent efforts.

Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), Jane (Jenny O’Hara), and Vincent (Geoffrey Arend) are trapped between floors when Elevator 6 goes into inspection mode. The inocuous muzak warms tempers and attitudes as time passes while the engineer finds out why. Vince, the swarmy mattress salesman tries to convince Sarah she needs a good night’s sleep on a new mattress. Ben, the temporary security guard, doesn’t like to be confined: as kids, his brother locked him in a trunk for hours. Jane, the irritating woman with a can of mace from the 1980s, jangles nerves. Increasing everyone’s frustration is the one-way communication with the outside world: they can hear the security guards but the guards can only see them, and the camera in the elevator is not very good for reading lips.

Ramirez’s opening narration explains what to look for when the Devil comes calling, and when a suicide leads the police to 333 Locust Street, he’s the only one–he even makes sure he’s right by dropping a slice of toast with jelly to see how it lands–who knows it won’t end well. Detective Bowden, who shares an important connection, unknowingly, with one of the five stranded passengers, identifies each person, giving us clues as to why they’re in their current predicament, and alternate reasons for what’s happening; but the alternatives are for Bowden to investigate, not us: the Devil is in the details and remains so as he takes souls, one by one, when the lights go out.

I hope the heavy marketing campaign that pegged Devil as an M. Night Shyamalan movie does not deter its potential audience: given his recent movies, it might. Devil is a thoughtful, low-throttle horror that easily avoids inciting snide remarks about going-down in an elevator.

The Twilight Saga, Eclipse (2010)

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twilight: Eclipse

“Bella, would you please stop trying to take your clothes off?” (Edward Cullen)

Zombos Says: Good (but you better be a romantic at heart)

“Well, if you must you must, but be prepared for the worst,” said Zombos, shaking his head in dismay.

“Look, I’m a reviewer, that’s what I do. This is just another movie to critique.” I folded my arms with certainty. But I didn’t feel certain.

“Another movie? Really? Die hard horror fans will have your hide piecemeal. Perhaps it would be better if you mentioned Zimba forced you to see it. Even better, put her name to this so-called review to play safe.” Zombos reached for his cordial and smugly sipped it.

“Zimba didn’t force me to see it, nor am I a mouse. Would Roger Ebert wince at reviewing this movie? Well, maybe while watching it, but I know he’d never falter at reviewing it. He isn’t a mouse either.” I reached for my cordial, forgetting I didn’t have one. I shook off the faux pas and regained my composure. But I wished I had had a cordial to smugly sip from.

Dash it all, I wish I were as certain about writing this review as Bella (Kristen Stewart) is in her love for Edward (Robert Pattinson). Wait a minute, she isn’t all that certain, now that I think of it. She’s gone and fallen in love with Jacob (Taylor Lautner), too. Oh bother, why can’t she make up her mind? She says she’s more in love with Edward. He’s certainly in love with her. Much of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is devoted to Edward and Bella’s concern over their upcoming nuptials and her turning into a vampire. With Jacob it would be simpler; no bloodletting necessary, just an occasional rinse and shampoo and combing to get the knots out: werewolf hair can get very knotty, especially when you’re as big as Jacob gets when he changes into one. I wish the CGI were better, though, to highlight his wonderful coat of bristling hair. They could certainly spend the money they save on his wardrobe–he rarely wears a shirt in this movie–and the special effects are light on gore and blood–blood for God’s sakes–in a vampire movie you’d expect more of that.

“You’re meandering,” said Zombos, reading over my shoulder. I really hate when he does that. I refocused.

Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard this time around), still carrying a grudge, begins raising an army of newborns–stronger and feistier fresh vampires–with the help of Riley (Xavier Samuel) to kill Bella. Now into three movies and it’s still all about Bella; her needs, her desires–

Zombos cleared his throat. I refocused. Again.

The Cullens (vampires) and the Quileute clan (werewolves) form a shaky alliance to battle the newborns and thwart Victoria’s plans. Members of the Volturi, led by Jane (Dakota Fanning), watch and wait, apparently up to something but I’m not sure what that might be. Jane can throttle you with her mind so she’s a formidable annoyance to avoid offending. Now, getting back to “feistier,” Bella wants to do more than just kiss Edward, but he’s all for abstinence before marriage. Sexuality, a recurring theme in all vampire movies and novels is nonrecurring here. There is passion, but it’s tepid in comparison to the boiling friskiness shown by Bela Lugosi’s or Christopher Lee’s or Frank Langella’s Dracula. I’m not sure about Jack Palance’s Dracula, but I’ll mention him also just in case.

Preparation for the impending battle with the newborns is guided by Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), who has faced a similar situation before. He knows how terribly destructive they can be. He tells Bella all about his past sins, and in doing so, Rathbone becomes one of the more interesting characters in this romance-heavy, horror-lite movie. The resulting battle between newborns, seasoned vampires, and werewolves is also bloodless, with vampires being broken apart, like statuary, onscreen, or mauled out of sight.

Most horror fans will balk (quite vociferously, too) at the bloodless and sun-walking vampires, and the large, but comely, werewolves in The Twilight Saga, but let’s face it, horror is not at the heart of this series: it’s the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob. Where many horror movies devote a multitude of endlessly spraying, bloodletting moments to butchering far friskier (and dumber) teenagers, The Twilight Saga devotes its time to Bella, mostly, and what she’s going to do about Edward and Jacob. More time is spent with Edward and Jacob discussing what they think Bella should be doing with them. And the remaining time is spent with somebody, somewhere, trying to kill her, which gets everybody involved in keeping her safe. Which is lucky for us; if no one wanted to kill her, this would be a very boring series indeed.

It’s a wonder they haven’t just turned her into a vampire already so she could protect herself for a change. Maybe we’ll see that in the next movie. It would be cool if she’d become a vamp-wolf or something like that, but that would sideline the romance a bit much. But it would be cool to see.

Splice (2009)
Missing Some Genes

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Dren

Zombos Says: Good (but should have been better)

The Frankenstein brothers had it easier back in the day: just rob a few graves, swap a brain or two, dodge the villagers, and they were good to go. For Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody), two scientists splicing genetic material for the pharmaceutical company funding them it’s harder: they need to quickly come up with a profitable benefit from their work for the company’s board of directors while avoiding using human DNA in the process to help. There’s all that messy ethical, moral, legal, and congressional-folk just itching to light those political-torches falderol if they give into temptation and cut that corner by doing so. But temptation is the bread and butter of horror, of course, and giving in to it is where Splice begins.

The movie cuts some corners also. It’s not quite a horror movie, though we do have a metamorphic monster; it’s not quite a character study, though there are glimpses into Elsa’s troubled family life; and it’s not quite a panoply for all those ethical, philosophical, and legal issues waiting to pounce when manipulations, creations, and terminations of human substance are involved; though fragments of this triplet codon are to be found here. This leaves Splice‘s horror and dramatic genes only partially joined, spread apart by inadequate dialog (thankfully devoid of too much scientific jargon) and a story that neither emphasizes its philosophical dilemmas or craftily avoids them, nor terrorizes us with their details.

…

Splice (2009)
Missing Some GenesRead More »

[REC] 2 (2009) Divinely Horrific

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[REC] 2 If Prince of Darkness married The Exorcist and they conceived a bouncing bundle of terror while watching Bava’s Demons, its name would be [REC] 2.

Zombos Says: Very Good

[Rec] 2 picks up immediately where [REC] left us, only this time we are with a 4-man SWAT team waiting to escort another Ministry of Health official, Dr. Owen (Jonathan Mellor), into the locked-down building. Only he knows more than they do.

With one skittish hand-held camera and three helmet minicams worn by the heavily armed police, directors Balaguero  and Plaza criss-cross the action across apartments and up and down the stairwell with reckless abandon, informing us and terrifying us with what we fully see, partially see, and don’t see.

Under Dr. Owen’s insistence they head to the attic, stepping over pools of blood as they climb the staircase, guns poised. When they reach the attic, he tells them to record everything, including the newspaper clippings taped to the walls. A frightened voice played from a reel to reel tape recorder hints at an experiment gone out of control. Distant screams prompt an argument when the police want to investigate and Dr. Owen tells them not to. Over the doctor’s protests and warnings, Martos heads down the staircase and enters one of the apartments. We see what he sees as his helmet minicam switches on. What he sees in the dim light rushes towards him with ill-intent, leaving his helmet on the floor and him fighting for his life. They rush to his aid but it’s too late–“He was fine a couple of minutes ago. What kind of a virus does that?”–He’s now infected and attacks them. Dr. Owen stops the attack in an unexpected way and they lock Martos in another room.

How the doctor did it leads to an explanation for what is going on, who lived in the attic apartment, and why they must return there to find a potential cure. The police officers are incredulous and fraying at the seems by the minute. The infected tenants want to pry those seems apart even more. Patient Zero, hinted at in the last minutes of [REC], is also in the attic. Only they need to figure out how to find her…And she’s not alone…And the old reliable gimmick of using an air duct big enough for an elephant to fit through is used for a scare. At least it’s grimy like it should be and the scare is worth it.

[REC] 2 is an old school horror show dressed up with enough exuberantly creative point of view camerawork to keep you dizzy and jumpy at the same time. Unlike its Americanized version, Quarantine, which resorts to a more “plausible” terrorist-weapon plot line to explain the source of contagion, [REC] 2 unabashedly returns to the roots of cinematic horror to overwhelm the apartment building’s tenants with a supernatural malevolence that will not be stopped. By kicking old school for their modus operandi, while playing with our perspective  to the point of disorientation, [REC] 2 maintains a freshness and exhilaration that many American horror movie sequels fail to do.

Better keep the popcorn and soda safely cradled while you watch this movie and your seatbelt fastened at all times. It’s a bumpy-in-the-night ride, the ending of which leaves [REC] 3 a strong possibility. And if that happens I’m definitely taking Dramamine before I see it.

Frozen (2010)
Minimalist Horror Best Served Cold

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Frozen (2010) movie Zombos Says: Excellent

I noticed I was shivering when well into watching Frozen. Granted it was the first show of the day in a chilly theater (outside it was below freezing), but a few of those shivers came from my fear of heights and a persistent memory of the one time I rode a ski lift. I become uneasy every time I think back to that experience; how I kept wishing the long ride would end faster, how I gulped and closed my eyes each time the ground sloped farther away from me and silently cheered when it came closer, how that small seat and flimsy security bar made me wish, even harder, I’d staid back in the warm lodge nursing a hot chocolate like I’d wanted to.

Director and writer Adam Green fills the first half-hour with youthful banter and playfulness. Parker (Emma Bell), prodded on by Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Joe (Shawn Ashmore), convinces the ski lift operator with cash and a warm smile to let them ride without tickets. People are everywhere, the sun is shining, and Joe meets a girl and scores her phone number after her ex-boyfriend gets jealous and knocks him down.

They should have ended the day eating pizza and drinking hot chocolate in the lodge instead of going for one last run on the slopes, but Joe makes Parker and Dan feel guilty for wasting his time earlier keeping pace with Dan’s girlfriend, Parker, who, being a beginner, fell down a lot. They hop onto the ski lift just as everyone else is finishing up or heading home. An all too plausible misjudgment leaves them stranded with a storm approaching. When the ride stops they complain. When the lights shut off, one by one, leaving them swinging in the cold wind, they realize the worst has happened: no one knows they’re up their; and the resort will be closed for the week; and it’s getting colder.

A closeup of the ski lift switch being pulled to turn off the ride and a long shot of those comfortingly bright lights slowly winking out in back of the three skiers, provide two of the most chilling moments in this minimalist horror. Parker, Joe, and Dan’s decisions from this point on provide the rest.

Frozen (2010) Minimalist horror movies, using their characters’ poor judgment to stoke unfortunate situations from inconvenient to life-threatening, rely on events taking place in one location. In Wind Chill, it’s the too easily forgotten bag of critical supplies that leaves a couple stranded on a deserted road; in Blair Witch it’s the carelessly lost map that leaves people lost in the spooky woods; and in Paranormal Activity it’s poor judgment that delays bringing in help before it’s too late for a fearful couple dealing with a demonic presence in their home. While all of these movies also rely on an underlying tone of disrespect for one’s potentially hostile environment to frame their events around, bad decisions provide the catalysts for heaping on the terror, despair, and desperation.

Parker, Joe, and Dan experience all three. As time passes, they acknowledge they’re screwed big time. They can’t wait for help; it won’t be coming any time soon. They can’t jump; they’re too high above the ground. They can’t climb to the nearest tower; the cable holding their gondala has sharp edges. And though their clothes are stylish, they are not good for keeping them warm in the freezing cold. First shock, then bickering and blame, and then desperation. Dan talks himself into jumping. He convinces himself that even if he gets hurt he can still slide down the slope for help. The other two don’t dissuade him as much as they thought they should have afterward. I thought to myself he’s not that stupid, he’s too high up. He is and he was. Dan jumps. He gets hurt. Badly hurt. Gore-effects-showcase kind of hurt. He also finds out why we were briefly shown a missing skier notice posted in the now deserted lodge.

Their situation goes downhill from here. Dan needs to stop the bleeding. Parker needs to pry her ungloved hand off the steel security bar it freezes to. Joe needs to make a last effort at climbing the steel cable, even though the first time he tried it his gloves and hands were cut up badly. Frostbite is a serious problem and even if they make it to the ground, they still need to survive what waits patiently–and hungrily–for them. I’ll leave it at that. I can’t tell you much more without ruining the suspense for you (although I’m surprised some professional reviewers have).

This is one time you will not appreciate the pretty snowy scenery in the background.

Six Other Movies To Watch
On Halloween Night

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DeadbirdsSure, you know all the usual horror movies we watch and recommend for Halloween viewing. But what about those other movies? You know, the ones a little harder to come by, not often mentioned, and spoken about in words that end with a self-deprecating laugh.

Well, I will not apologize any more. These movies are creepy fun for a Halloween night, after you have eaten your twelfth candy bar and littered the floor with candy corn as you rummage deep into your trick or treat bag looking for the dark creamy stuff instead.

Make sure to watch them with others, though. It is no fun laughing in the dark, all alone, on Halloween night. You never know who is listening.

Spookies (1987)

If you are looking for the perfect second-half of a double bill Halloween show with Plan 9 From Outer Space, look no further. Spookies is a film to be savored for its underdone acting, overbearing dialog, and incoherent story. So rarely do horror films reach the pinnacle of hilarious “what the f*ck” ineptitude this film achieves so easily.

The Video Dead (1987)

It starts off innocently enough. The Hi-Lite delivery service delivers an unmarked crate to an unsuspecting writer. We know he is a writer because he is sleeping the day away, surly, and says he does not even watch television. He must be a blogger, too. Over his protests they leave the crate in his living room. He manages to pry the crate open and plug in the battered, rotary channel dial, black and white television set. He checks to see if it works, but only one show comes in clearly no matter which channel he turns to. The show is Zombie Blood Nightmare and not much happens in it except for zombies continuously staggering around in the woods.

Shrooms (2006)

Hack and slash, and run run run…to Glen Garig. The one place in the forest they really shouldn’t be going is where they wind up. Before that, everyone is screaming at the top of his or her lungs for everyone else. So my question is this: when being stalked in the forest, can anyone hear you scream? Based on this movie the answer is no. As panic sets in, Tara manages to do a Looney Tunes into a tree, face first. While I think Elmer Fudd had better timing, she’s not bad at it.

Scarecrows (1988)

Escaping in a hijacked plane with the pilot and his daughter, after a robbery worth millions, a para-military bunch is double-crossed by one of their own; a very nervous guy named Burt. He jumps out of the plane with the big–and heavy–box that holds the robbery money, with apparently no plan on how he’s going to carry it once he is on the ground. Being the dumbest of the bunch, he is murdered first; but not before he happens upon the Fowler residence, nestled snuggly amid lots of really creepy-looking scarecrows perched all around the wooden fence encircled with barbed-wire and lots of warnings to stay away. The weird weathervane on the roof, with the pitchfork and pteradactyl, is a clear sign this old homestead is more deadstead than homey.

And for more serious scares…

Uzumaki (2000)

Taken from the three-volume manga by Junji Ito, the town of Kurozu-cho is beset by spirals spinning into the lives of the townspeople, driving them to madness, bizarre change, and gruesome death.

Dead Birds (2004)

A horror story set in the Old West. Bank robbers flee to a lonely house in the woods. But they are not alone. Strange things lurk in the shadows and under the bed, and when they think they are free from danger, it becomes the most dangerous time indeed.

Trick or Treat (1986)
Wicked Rock and Roll

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Trick or treat

Zombos Says: Good

Metalheads, demonic forces, wicked rock and roll, an intimidated outcast teen, and the 1980s seem to go together in horror movies like Honey Nut Cheerios and fat-rich milk. I don’t know if Eddie Weinbauer (Marc Price) likes Cheerios, but he does
like heavy metal rocker Sammi Curr (Tony Fields). Idolizes him in fact. Sammi does things Eddie dreams of doing if he had the chance. When Sammi goes and dies in a hotel fire, Eddie, disheartened, heads off to school to face his typical day of being emotionally bullied by the in-crowd; the pretty faces, lithe bodies, why-do-you-listen-to-that-crap and why-can’t-you-be-like-one-of-us crowd. His day is made worse when jock Tim (Doug Savant) precipitates Eddie’s sudden appearance, without his very important shower towel, in the girl’s gym class. Luckily for Eddie this is the pre-YouTube, Facebook age, so it was just a Polaroid of his butt making the hallway rounds later.

Sammi, before he became famous, was bullied and intimidated for being different, too. He even graduated from the school Eddie goes to. Both have a lot in common, but it’s Sammi’s death that brings them face to face. But at a price of course; this is a horror movie after all.

Eddie’s deejay buddy Nuke (Gene Simmons) perks up his down day with the master recording of Sammi’s last, unreleased, album. Nuke already has it on tape and is going to play it at midnight. Later, when Eddie falls asleep listening to it, he dreams about Sammi’s death. He wakes up to the record repeating some odd words and, on a hunch, tries the old trick of playing the record backwards (now it is an old trick; back then it was fairly new). Eddie realizes Sammi is speaking to him; really, not philosophically. There is no psychological subtlety here, no maybe it is just Eddie going off the deep
end. Trick or Treat keeps its Black Sabbath evil straight as any self-respecting 1980s heavy-metalized horror movie should.

Sammi is anxious to get even for all the bullying he had to deal with in school. Eddie wants revenge for all his mistreatment. It’s a match made in Hell and both hook up for some payback; only Sammi plays a lot rougher than Eddie and for cemetery-keeps. When Eddie balks after almost killing Tim in shop class, Sammi pays him a fire and brimstone visit, powered by the amperage in Eddie’s stereo.

Ozzy Osbourne puts in a brief appearance as televangelist Reverend Aaron Gilstrom, a crusader against the bad influences of heavy metal music. Brief because, as he appears on Eddie’s television set during Sammi’s sudden visit from the grave, Sammi reaches into the screen and pulls him out by his Holy Roller neck in a 1980s special effects kind of way.

Not only does Sammi look heavy metal rock and roller musician bad, he is bad.

Eddie realizes he may have misjudged his idol a bit, and with the Halloween school dance about to start, needs to act fast to stop Sammi from exacting his revenge. Powering the dead rocker is his music played from a cassette tape (how many of you remember cassette tapes?).

A seductive scene in Tim’s car involving his girlfriend and Sammi’s hot music allows for 1980s puppet-demon and melted ears special effects. Eddie deals with the evil cassette, but Nuke has his reel to reel tape set to go at midnight, and Sammi has set up a mystical force field around the machine at the radio station.

Bummer.

As I recall, there were times I wanted to do to my tapes what Eddie does to Sammi’s cassette—and do not get me started on those really evil 8
Track cartridges.

Eddie gives the task of destroying the cassette to his only friend, Roger (Glen Morgan). Sammi pays Roger a visit and, well, you know where this one is going. The cassette winds up at the school dance, allowing Sammi to appear for a song accompanied by lethal pyrotechnics. Eddie’s sort-of girlfriend, Leslie (Lisa Orgolini), helps him fight Sammi. Both split up; Leslie tries to destroy the reel to reel tape player before midnight and Eddie goes for a hectic drive with Sammi.

Although the scariest things in Trick or Treat are the 1980s hairdos and being reminded of those nasty cassette tapes, Sammi is a cool rock and roll villain, the story is low-key horror fun, and the music is heavy-metally sharp. Eddie’s character is one many of us can relate to and his idolization of Sammi mimics our own glorification of our rock and roll gods.

And playing records backwards is really cool to do, especially on Halloween, too.